OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Biden administration has not released a critical report on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) arrests and deportations in the Fiscal Year 2021, which was expected at the end of the year.
This has led to many criticizing the Biden administration and accusing the regime of stalling the report because it will contain damaging information about the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Washington Free Beacon noted that the report has been released at the end of the calendar year at least since 2011.
“The Biden administration has yet to release a report that details the number of illegal immigrants removed from the United States in 2021, keeping the public in the dark about its handling of the immigration crisis,” the Fee Beacon reported.
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not release its annual report in 2021, a departure from standard agency practice since at least 2011. In each of the last nine years, ICE released the report in the final weeks of the calendar year, most recently on Dec. 23, 2020, during the Trump administration,” the report continued.
The outlet noted that it’s not clear whether ICE has completed the annual report, which normally contains a detailed summary of the agency’s overall enforcement and removal actions and operations. The report generally also contains immigration-related security threats.
A spokeswoman for ICE told the outlet that there is no release date set for the report, which means a couple of things: The regime is figuring out a way to spin its lax border enforcement as a positive and there will be a lot of obfuscation of what ICE is currently not allowed to do.
But fortunately, the failure of the administration to publish the report has not gone unnoticed on Capitol Hill. The Free Beacon noted that Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is already questioning why the report has been delayed and what the regime’s motivation is behind the delay.
“During record-breaking levels of illegal immigration, DHS and ICE have taken steps to dismantle interior enforcement operations that keep our communities safe from criminal aliens,” Hawley told the outlet. “I’ve been calling for transparency into these radical policy changes for months. If ICE is intentionally hiding their annual report from the public, then it’s safe to assume it doesn’t show any improvement; it shows failure.”
The WFB added:
“The administration’s decision not to release the ICE report marks the latest example of Biden’s failure to live up to transparency standards set by both its Democratic and Republican predecessors. The Free Beacon in November reported that the White House violated a congressional statute with its failure to release its report on the number of illegal immigrants in the United States. The 2021 fiscal year saw more recorded illegal border crossings than any time in U.S. history.”
The delayed report comes amid bad polling for the White House on the issue of immigration enforcement.
“It’s absolutely shocking that the release of the ICE report hasn’t happened,” former ICE chief of staff Jon Feere told the Free Beacon. “I assumed, at worst, they’d put it out on New Year’s Eve when nobody is paying attention, but even that didn’t happen.”
“I can’t imagine the outcry if we had not produced this report under the Trump administration,” Feere said.
Biden’s not the only one getting poor approval ratings over his open border policies. Kamala Harris, whom Biden appointed “border czar,” is polling even worse.
